Service Chain

I love family traditions.  I think they are important in building strong family relationships.  We have everyday traditions that help bring our family together daily: trying to eat at mealtimes together, discussing our day and three things that happened or that we are grateful for, family prayer, family home evening, supporting one another at sports events, or activities we are involved in, snuggling and reading books at bedtime.  These traditions are just as important as the seasonal ones we participate in.  During the holidays I think the traditions are intensified, we add to what we already do.

Here is a new one that I have been loving this year.  We made a service chain.  We discussed what it meant to serve someone.  That is must be a sacrifice of our time or talent.  That we didn't expect anything in return and we did it with a happy heart.  We also discussed small and simple ways to serve.  That it didn't need to be something super extravagent.  That we just needed to be looking everyday for ways to serve others and those in our family.

At the end of the day, everyone must fill out at least one chain to link on our tree.

We decided to put our chain on the tree.

I have been loving many of the links so far: Rub dad's back, carry great Grandma's purse, gave my spot up in the front to sit in the back of the car, snuggled with Mom, Played nicely with my brothers, helped calm down a friend at school, helped my friend find his page when he lost it at school....small, little things that make a big difference.

it makes me happy to see it grow each day.  I hope we can carry this on to an everyday tradition once Christmas passes.

Comments

[CarolM]

this is really great!!!!
love it ;)

[Claire]

I love this. I hope you figure out a way to keep it going after Christmas because I want to steal it. Very sweet.

[Jen Reil]

What a wonderful tradition!